It is astonishing to report, that after 7
years of continuous decline and 5years of radical "land reform" that the
economy still shows all the signs of"broad based contraction" (IMF) and that
the agricultural sector is stillshrinking. The actual facts are quite stark.
GDP is down to about US$4,8billion from US$8,4 billion in 1997, exports are
down from US$3,4 billion inthe same year to US$1,23 billion last year - and
goodness knows what figurefor the current year.

But it is farm output
that gives rise to the most concern as this has beenthe subject of intense
attention over the past 4 years as government hasimplemented its "fast track
land reform programme". Only last week agovernment Minister told an AU
meeting that "Zimbabwe was on the edge of adramatic agricultural recovery
which would see 2 million jobs being created." For a Minister in a
government that has seen the formal sectorjob market shrink from about 1,4
million jobs to probably about 800 000 in2004, that is quite a claim to
make.

The reality is that all sectors of the agricultural industry are in
steepdecline - and continue to shrink at an alarming rate. We heard this
weekthat the "GMB has 298 000 tonnes of maize in stock". This was very
carefullyphrased - not 298 000 tonnes purchased, but 298 000 tonnes in
stock. That ishalf way through the GMB intake season, it has increased its
stocks from anopening figure of 220 000 tonnes to 298 000 despite
significant imports forwhich no figures were tendered.

That means
that with 8 months to go before we can expect any significantdeliveries of
the 2004/05 crop, we have 2 months supply of maize in stock.Only in 1992
when we suffered an almost total crop failure due to drought,have we been in
a more dangerous situation.

But the maize situation should not obscure
the fact that all other sectorsare shrinking with equally disastrous
results. Wheat output - already downin 2003 to 14 per cent of previous
levels is set to shrink still further.Milk production is down to 35 per cent
of production, meat output is alsodown and prices in Zimbabwe are now higher
than in South Africa in realterms - a first for this country which is a
large producer and consumer ofall meat products. Oilseeds - critical to the
stockfeed industry and foredible oils and fats production is now down to
less than 40 per cent ofdemand.

The list does not end there - coffee,
fruit, tea, sugar are all experiencingsignificant reductions in total output
while the export industries ofhorticulture and tobacco are now down to 50
per cent and 35 per cent oftheir normal output.

This has resulted in
many shortages and perhaps more seriously, a very bigincrease in prices of
food in Zimbabwe - once the cheapest in the wholeregion, now costing as much
or even more than in our less well endowedneighbors. With 25 per cent of our
adult population HIV positive, such adevelopment has serious implications as
infected individuals require a verymuch better diet to survive, especially
in a country where only 0.2 per centof all infected persons receive
medication.

There are no signs of recovery - none at all, in fact
virtually every sectorlooks as if this coming season will be worse than the
last - even if we getnormal rains. In April the tobacco industry should have
completed landpreparation, in May and June seedbeds should have been
planted. Landpreparation and early planted crops should go in about now.
Very little ishappening on the ground and a significant number of growers
who produced acrop this past season will not grow this year. Inputs of seed
and fertilizeras well as essential chemicals and fuel are all in short
supply. Right now -when the industry is normally at its peak in demand,
there is a serious andgrowing shortage of fuel.

I have spent my whole
life in agriculture and I can see no signs of any turnaround in this
situation. We have an idiot who is the Minister ofAgriculture, Army officers
trying to run the GMB and everyone else trying tosteal what is left. It is a
catastrophe.

The displaced farmers, who have been illegally and with
force of arms,kicked off their farms, are trying to put their shattered
lives backtogether. I spoke to one the other day - he has gone to Zambia
where he nowruns the largest coffee farm in the world with 1600 hectares of
coffee. Hisone son goes to school in England and his daughter to University
in SouthAfrica. In Botswana, just over the border with Zimbabwe I have a
friend whois clearing wild bush for Zimbabwean displaced farmers. He tells
me he hasyears of work, that at some points you cannot see the end of the
lands inquestion - they stretch to the horizon. These stories can be
repeated formany African States who have taken these productive refugees in.
I am toldfor example, that one well known Zimbabwean grower has established
thelargest tobacco unit in the world - also in Zambia.

What is often
not appreciated is that these are 4th and 5th generationAfrican farmers,
with essential African experience and skills. They are alsoexcellent
managers and know how to operate in an African environment. It'snot an easy
environment - much less manageable than the agriculturalconditions in the
USA or Europe.

Yet the madness goes on - just this past month Eric
Harrison - probably oneof the best irrigation farmers in the country, has
been forced off his farm.A standing crop of citrus and sugarcane, worth a
conservative Z$5 billion,has been stolen and destroyed. 30 years of work has
been lost and today Ericand his wife, completely shattered by the loss of
their home and businessare in Australia for a break while they decide what
to do. Their sons aretrying to recover what they can so that they have
something to live on. 2003was the first year in their whole married life
that they had grown theircrops without an overdraft. Do many of us
appreciate that simple statement?

On Friday the Hennings - having been
encouraged to grow a winter wheat cropand also significant producers of
tobacco and paprika, were told to leavethe farm or else. They packed a few
bags and fled to Harare. On Sunday, theacting Mayor of Harare, a woman who
has switched sides to give Zanu PFcontrol of the city after the MDC took 85
per cent of the popular vote,arrived. "This is my farm now" she announced to
the press from the lounge ofher new rural home. Apart from the sheer
stupidity of such a statement,every other investor in the agricultural
industry and beyond, watches thissort of thing and starts closing down what
is left of their own operation.Next time they ask a few farmers to plant a
crop in a last minute desperateexercise to get something into the ground,
there will be few takers.

Then this week we have had the spectacle of the
Police driving off new"settlers" from farms targeted for occupation by a
Zanu "heavy". First itwas the 30 000 odd people on Porta Farm then the
settlers on LittleEngland - David Smith's old place, so that Mugabe's sister
could take itover. Now Mugabe has pointed his poisoned chalice at the mining
industry.Well at least he is consistent.

In October last year, the city of Gweru was
reeling under a $1,2 billion debt. Service delivery was at the barest
minimum and residents were being taxed heavily to keep the then Zanu PF
council afloat. Today, a mere 11 months later, an MDC council has cleared
the Gweru debt and suspended all rate increases.

Masvingo,
Mutare, Kariba, Victoria Falls, Redcliff and Bulawayo forecast a similar
improvement in their financial status after the new MDC councils introduced
people-driven, turn-around strategies to clear debts and to clean up the
mess they inherited from the previous municipal regimes.

In a
short space of 100 days after the mayoral and council elections, the new
Harare City Council re-surfaced almost all the roads which were severely
potholed by years of neglect and maladministration. Engineer Elias Mudzuri,
the Mayor of Harare and his MDC council was moving so fast to curb graft,
restore the city's image and improve water supplies to all the residents.
Mudzuri was fired soon afterwards, as you all know, throwing our development
agenda into turmoil.

Our success in local government,
especially in towns and cities where political interference has been
minimal, demonstrates the commitment of an MDC administration to stop the
haemorrhage, to harness the people's potential and to start
afresh.

Our councils have shown that the administration of our
towns and cities can be transformed, leaving residents with access to
services and extra cash to for their families. In line with our values, our
councils are required to consult widely with the residents in order to
register and address specific needs of the people. A new management style
is now in place, led by people who understand change. They have adopted a
pro-active approach to local governance issues. The new councils handle
challenges with open minds.

If we get the politics right through
a free and fair election and a legitimate government in March, Zimbabwe
could be poised for immense opportunities for freedom and advancement. The
persistent structural issues of inequality and bias in growth and
redistribution could be resolved in a fundamental and visible way. Our towns
and cities will find sufficient breathing space to undo 24 years of damage
and decay. Victoria Falls, Kariba and other tourist destinations shall
spring to life with visitors, as was the tradition before Zimbabwe's current
pariah status.

Peace holds the key to our efforts to rebuild
Zimbabwe. The MDC commits itself to restoring law and order as a matter of
urgency. Zimbabweans with diverse political opinions must re-unite and
co-exist in an environment of peace. Peace is the basis upon which our
economic stabilisation and recovery plan rests. We have no desire to travel
the path of retribution at the expense of national unity, national healing,
reconstruction and job creation. It is important that our attention is not
diverted to emotional, side issues which do not assist the starving, jobless
Zimbabweans.

A free and fair election will change our lives in a
significant way. With a legitimate government, our nation shall expose
itself for a state of hyper activity: as we move onto the farms to finalise
the land question and to re-organise and restore agriculture; as we
rehabilitate our damaged infrastructure; as commerce and industry unlock
their doors to production and jobs; and as we open up the country to
freedom.

We believe commercial agriculture shall once again
assume its economic leadership position, with new opportunities for the
revival of industry, food security, increased exports, new jobs and foreign
exchange for essential imports.

We shall be able to put in
action a far-reaching land tenure system to turn the communal lands into
commercially viable, productive units. Our communal lands in their present
form are a potential source for economic and political insecurity, having
been turned into zones where abundant human resources and knowledge systems
waste away without national notice.

We plan to abolish the dual
agrarian structure which has condemned nearly 20 million hectares in the
communal lands to tiny, uneconomic and unattractive subsistence plots. Any
part of Zimbabwe must open itself to a set of opportunities for all,
especially our young people. We aim to build a strong agro-industrial link
between our rural and urban areas, generate additional employment,
de-congest the present communal areas and stimulate higher levels of
economic activity.

To encourage participation, rights over
communal land and resources will pass from the state to the people. That
programme will facilitate the evolution of secure, well defined and
transferable rights to land, especially for women. The present state of
affairs discourages investment in the communal lands and denies millions
access to modern infrastructural services.

We believe land is
an economic asset whose full exploitation can only be possible when
supported by technical and financial services geared to transform Zimbabwe
into an industrialised nation.

An MDC government, born out of a
free and fair election, shall avoid disorder in the agriculture sector and
steer clear of careless political experiments with food supplies and food
security. It is sad that up to this day, Zimbabwean farmers have no clue as
to where to source seed for a season that starts in a few weeks time.
Governments must never be allowed to play speculative political games with
people's lives.

An MDC government shall limit its role in the
pricing and marketing of essential inputs, seed and agricultural chemicals,
in order to ensure a competitive pricing environment necessary for
continuous investment in agriculture.

As a social liberation
movement, the MDC shall be obliged to raise income levels, to attend to
poverty, to address inequality, to raise life expectancy and to roll
Zimbabwe back onto a sustainable development path.

With 80
percent unemployment, we are fully aware of the enormous challenges ahead.
The measures we propose in our policies and programmes seek to wipe out the
precarious informal sector which has turned our nation into one big flea
market.

We shall transform these informal businesses into
substantive formal sector units, launch a vigorous public works programme
and encourage linkages between small, up-coming producers with large
enterprises. We realise the importance of the small business sector to our
economy.

As the economy picks up, small businesses shall be ready
to absorb large numbers of young people. A new beginning is an absolute
necessity. A new Zimbabwe is what the nation needs. Almost a quarter of
century after independence, we are as poor as we were in 1970. A tiny
fraction of our population is still in formal employment. Fewer people are
at work, compared to 1980 despite the fact that at the time we were emerging
from a brutal war. Life expectancy today is lower than in
1960.

I know that the crisis is far too severe and deep-seated to
allow for instant recovery. But we have no choice. We have to pick up the
pieces and start afresh. We aim to return to a near normal position within a
reasonable time in order to lift our nation from a current position of a
failed state.

Our starting point is in March next year. The MDC
is the only political party that is capable of reversing the Zimbabwean
tragedy and turn our nation into the success story it should be. At a
political level, we are headed towards the final resolution of the crisis.
You asked for a revision of our electoral standards. We took your case to
SADC. The region agreed with you and adopted your proposals. Since then Zanu
PF and regime have never rested, trying to find ways of wriggling out of
their responsibility. They are losing all the way.

Despite
their propaganda, it is clear that you, the people, are making progress in
the fight for freedom. Together, we shall celebrate Zimbabwe's re-entry and
integration into the family of nations.

Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) members embarked upon a 440-kilometer
walkfromBulawayo to Harare on Sunday 19 September 2004. The women
activists,numberingnumbering 35, left Bulawayo at 6:20 am on Sunday and
by 5 pm, 20 Septemberthegroup had set up camp at the Matabele War
Memorial 107 kilometers fromBulawayo. They will continue walking along the
highway covering 30-50 km perday. They are spending the night out in the
open and had showers to contentwith last night and the weather has remained
inclement today. Suitable forwalking but not for sleeping out in the
open.

Aged between 20 and 60 years old, and in all shapes and sizes, the
walkersaveraged 6 kilometers an hour proving their walk message - 'You
strike awomanand you have struck a rock'! A Zulu saying - Uthinte Umfazi
UthinteImbokodo!The NGO Bill if passed in its current form will have
struck at the lives andvery survival of women and their families. Most of
the women arebeneficiariesof donor food and have HIV/Aids orphans that
they care for. This walksymbolizes a defending of the kindness of the donor
community and way ofsayinghow much their help has meant to
Zimbabweans.

A Methodist Reverend, from the outspoken Christians Together
for Justice andPeace blessed the walkers at a prayer Service on Friday. He
called on thewomento "defend those doing good and not allow doing good
to becomecriminalized".The NGO Bill seeks to exert tight-fisted control
over human rights andgovernance activities undertaken by organizations. Such
activities werehitherto able to operate under international Human Rights
protocols andnorms.The Church community has described the bill as an
"overkill' Bill and Civicsociety has adopted a unified position in dubbing
the NGO Bill - "the Billthatkills when Zimbabweans want
life".Background: The NGO Bill is due to become a law in October and over
200community activists will loose a source of income. Their families and
theorphans they care for will suffer hardship. WOZA is conducting a
sponsoredwalkto raise money for the welfare of activists. Members will
each walk 60kilometers, with some attempting to walk all the way. Please
donate orsponsorus to help lessen the suffering caused by this unjust
law. As it is draftednow, this Bill will KILL instead of bringing us more
LIFE. IT affects us,andthe caring people who help us with food when we
are hungry, medicine when weare sick, development, which gives us
opportunities. NGO's and Civic Societyorganizations give us knowledge.
KNOWLEDGE is POWER so the Bill wants tomakeus powerless.WOMEN OF
ZIMBABWE ARISE (WOZA) Email: woza@mango.zw
orwozazimbabwe@yahoo.comWrite: Box
FM701, Famona, BulawayoMobile Phones: (+263) 11-213-885 / (+263) 91 300456
(+263) 91 362 668

Thank you for all the regular updates -
I am a British freelance journalistwho specialises in African affairs, and
your newsletters help keep me up tospeed on the agricultural events in your
country. Some of you know mealready, others I only know from your
contributions.

I recently recieved a request from an old friend to help
him find aFrench-speaking farmer in Zimbabwe. I know that sadly many people
have beenforced to leave the land, and my friend is thinking of doing a
piece on thesubject.

At the moment, we are not looking for
interviewees, or subjects, justsomeone to talk to, confidentially and
entirely off the record. I canprovide more details of the project via email
or telephone, but it is onlyin the planning stages right now. You can email
me back onannwayne14@hotmail.com. Thank you very
much.

Anne
Wayne______________________________________________

Letter 2.
Subject: Intervention

Foreign Intervention.

As someone who lives
under a dictatorship, denied most of my human andpolitical rights and
constantly under threat from a rogue government thatcontrols all the forces
at the disposal of a modern government, I have asympathetic view of foreign
intervention. This is one of those issues thatthe global community is
struggling with and which the media seems to havetaken to heart as a
"cause".

We have the recent examples - Iraq and Afghanistan. In both
cases acoalition of governments - mainly drawn from the traditional
westernalliance, have gone in with overwhelming force and effected regime
change.These actions have their supporters and their detractors, but as
anoutsider with no real interest in either case, let me just say that a
fewthings do impress me as being important, often overlooked
aspects.

Firstly, these were remarkable military achievements exhibiting,
if we didnot already know it, the huge capacity of those intervening States
toexercise power on the ground. If anyone had told experts in 1960 that
USled forces could take Afghanistan and Iraq with the kind of casualties
andspeed with which both objectives were achieved - they would have
deridedsuch a view as being impossible. But it was achieved - not just
because theUS was in the lead but also because the political and military
leadershipput into these operations what it took to achieve the agreed
militaryobjectives. The other day the US marked the loss of its 1000th
casualty inthe Iraq campaign - 0,4 per cent of the forces committed. It is
aremarkable achievement - I would like to know what the Pentagon
estimatedas their likely casualties at the start of this exercise. To
thegovernments in the Middle East they must be stunned at what has
beenachieved and at the low cost in terms of human life.

Secondly,
these same interventionist States are now trying to do somethingmuch harder
- they are trying to convert these ancient Islamic societiesinto modern
liberal democracies. If they can achieve that - then they aremiracle
workers! Who said it was going to easy, who said it was not goingto be messy
- no one that I have heard. The remnants of the deposed regimeson the ground
and their regional and international supporters know verywell how to fight a
rearguard action - its not expensive and they havelittle regard for human
life. So we have our daily feed via satellite TV ofkidnappings and car
bombs. It is so easy to capture the attention of themedia with these cheap,
simple means. Bush and Blair bashing have becomethe sine qua non of the
major newspapers and television channels. This doesnot make the work of
these courageous leaders any easier and perhaps it istime the media managers
of the world took stock of just what they aredoing.

We are told that
the justification for these interventions was never reallyestablished - who
is fooling whom on this issue? Of course Iraq had andused all forms of
weapons of mass destruction - ask the Kurds, ask Iraniansurvivors. Would
they have made such weapons available to people whoclaimed they could
deliver them into the heart of New York, Washington andLondon - without
doubt. I remember a few years ago sitting in a lovelygarden in France, the
sun was shining and there were snow-covered mountainsnearby. Idyllic I
thought. Then my host pointed to the crest of a ridge ofhills just a few
kilometers away and said "those concrete structures youcan see are the
missile tubes for Frances nuclear deterrent. If Russiastrikes at us, we will
never know it!" I then appreciated what it was tolive in an uncontested part
of the world.

Just imagine what would happen if a single weapon capable
of massdestruction got into a major urban complex - many hundreds of
thousandswould be at risk of their very lives. I have got no doubt that Bush
andBlair were right to attack these possible sources of support for
globalterrorism. To further justify this view just look at how other
unstablerogue states have reacted to this firm leadership - Libya, Iran,
Somaliaand North Korea have all shrunk back from the stance they had
previouslyadopted. Afraid that they might face the same treatment. Left
unchallenged,a country like Libya did all sorts of terrible things - worse
might havecome had the coalition States not invaded Iraq.

Then look
at the failures to intervene - Cambodia, a complete generation ofeducated
people wiped out, up to three million innocents killed. Rwanda, ahandful of
western soldiers - there under a UN mandate stand back and watchas 80 000
Tutsi and Hutu moderates are slaughtered every day in a massacrethat went on
for nearly three months. Somali bandits kill and humiliate ahandful of
American soldiers and then, left to their own devices theydestabilize a
whole country, murder thousands of their own people andbecome a breeding
ground for global terrorism. The Congo, where Kabilaoverthrew Mabutu and
then - under threat himself, he unleashed an orgy ofviolence, which left
millions dead, and tens of millions of ordinaryinnocents displaced. Now
Darfur, where a small force of government backedIslamic soldiers have
committed genocide and up to 10 000 people are nowdying every
week.

Look back into history - Churchill was right about Hitler - had
thecoalition of forces moved against Hitler early, the history of the
20thCentury would have been very different - and had a low cost compared to
thelosses of the world war that followed. What about the Kurds in the
MiddleEast, what about the Kulaks in Stalins Russia?

Intervention and
regime change, by force if necessary, may not be pleasantto contemplate, but
in many instances it may be the only way forward -Nerere's intervention in
Uganda, Vietnams intervention in Cambodia. Thiswas the only way to bring a
rogue government to heel and start a countryback on the long and painful
road to recovery. Do we want or need armedintervention in Zimbabwe - no! But
without international and regional helpto get this rogue government here
back to behaving as a reasonableinstitution and observing the basic
principles of democracy, there islittle or no chance of change in a positive
direction. Our casualties donot warrant CNN or BBC attention but they are
nevertheless real - and theynumber in their tens or even hundreds of
thousands.

Leaders are more culpable than their followers on an issue
like this - theyhave better information. An Englishman sitting in front of
his TV can reactto a BBC film clip showing starved, dying children. A
similar child in acountry like Zimbabwe, dying of hunger or malnutrition or
preventabledisease is no less a casualty simply because you cannot see it on
youtelevision because Mugabe has banned the film crews. But Blair knows
thatchild is dying - and why, Mbeki also knows - they choose to act or not
toact and when they are dammed for acting at home they often back off
withdisastrous consequences. There are many who argue that had the
Somalimassacre of US Marines not taken place, Rwanda would have been dealt
within a totally different way and hundreds of thousands saved - at little
realcost.

I weep with every Mother and Father who loses a son or a
daughter in theconflict in Iraq or Afghanistan. At the same time I think the
cause isright and the oppressed majority in these countries will be
forevergrateful to them for their sacrifice. And who knows how many "at
home" willowe their continued safety and security to what their sons and
daughtersare doing thousands of kilometers from home.

It is encouraging to see that someone has
bothered to start some kind ofprotest against the PTC charge hikes. For
those of you who just shrug yourshoulders and say that is just the way
things are in Zimbabwe, please donot read on, *.and have a nice
day!

For those who do give a damn, read on and make you protest in
whichever wayyou think appropriate****..

To those of you who
are responsible for the payment of Tel-One telephoneaccounts, (which have
started arriving today)please seriously considerwriting to the General
Manager of Tel-One within the next few days toCOMPLAIN IN THE VERY STRONGEST
TERMS against the unfair, unjustified andexhorbitant telephone rates
increases which have come into effect.

What we need is a massive and
strong protest against the unjustified andastronomical telephone charge
increases introduced by Tel-One. The unitcharges have been increased
overnight from $120 to $585, a five-foldincrease.

This is justified
by neither the current rate of inflation nor animprovement in the quality of
service provided.

By comparison, fixed land-line operators overseas have
cut their rates byan average of 50% over the last couple of years. It would
appear thereforethat these increases are the result of either pure greed or
incompetence.

It is likely that several businesses will not be able to
sustain suchunrealistic increases and will have to close down. At a time
when theGovernor of the Reserve Bank is trying, quite successfully, to
controlinflation in Zimbabwe, the latest measure is tantamount to
economicsabotage.

These telephone charge increases will doubtlessly
have a 'domino' effect onall businesses, like fuel price increases do, and
you can expect othercharges/fees/rates and subscriptions to increase in
order to off-set these!

Let's try to be united in protest against these
increases.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinionsof the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justicefor
Agriculture.---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vesting of land, taking of materials and
exercise of rights over land.

NOTICE NOTICE is herby given, in terms of
paragraph (iii) of sub-section(1) of section 8 of the Land Acquisition Act
(Chapter 20:10), that thePreseident has acquired compulsorily the land
descirbed in the Schedule forresettlement urposes.

HARARE - The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has
been rocked by allegations of corruption with reports that the Governor,
Gideon Gono has been personally recruiting staff without advertising vacant
positions.

Sources at the central bank allege that Gono, who has
dismissed a number of staff members under some restructuring exercise at the
bank since he took over the reins at the end last year has fallen victim to
corrupt tendencies and was now recruiting relatives and friends to key
positions in the bank.

The sources said what is most disturbing
was that some of the people getting top and influential positions did not
have proper qualifications for the jobs.

There are also
allegations that those brought by the governor were getting salaries which
were higher than their counterparts who were recruited by the human
resources department or who joined the bank before Gono.

Although efforts to get comment from Gono were fruitless yesterday, the
Daily News Online was able to ascertain that there were some RBZ staffers
who were getting their salaries through a chartered accountancy
firm.

"It's these guys who were brought here by the new
governor who are getting very high salaries and we do not know why the
situation is like this. Perhaps it is meant to frustrate us out of the
institution," said one source.

The source said under normal
circumstances, the human resources department was responsible for
the

recruitment of staff even if some people were recommended by
top management.

"But this has not happened. People have been
fired and we have seen their positions occupied without the proper channels
of advertising the posts are done," said another source.

There
have been reports in the Press that Gono, who has been largely credited for
bringing some order in the financial sector was not clean after
all.

Some of the allegations against him are that while he was
at the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe, Gono flouted the foreign exchange
controls by raising forex on the black market for the First Lady Grace
Mugabe's overseas shopping trips.

It has also been reported
that Gono has some properties in Johannesburg and Australia yet the
anti-corruption crusade has not touched him.

I recently visited the
vazukuru in Harare North overseas, but what a country that is!

Everyone who mentioned Tony Blair to me seemed to say "I don't know now why
I voted for him. We were all very mistaken in him."

It is hard now
to remember a promise he made before he was elected that he has kept. He
promised a more democratic electoral system, but, once he was in power, he
found the system he inherited served him very well - so no more talk of
electoral reform.

The main priority now seems to be his survival
and his winning the next election.

Scandalous revelations about
the activities of his cronies surface regularly in those newspapers that he
doesn't totally control. He didn't do the country any good by sending troops
to join an allied war effort in a far-off country.

But does he
accept responsibility for any of this? Not a bit of it. He'd rather find a
scapegoat to blame. It doesn't matter how far away or how unlikely the one
he accuses is actually responsible.

It is enough to chant a name
the party faithful know they should hate, like Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin
Laden or our own dear leader, Robert Gabriel Mugabe (though they don't do
our Dear Leader the well-deserved courtesy of using his middle name to add
dignity).

When they hear a name off the hate list, the subservient
hacks who edit his newspapers all join in the chorus.

Did you
know that the evil Robert Mugabe is plotting day and night to subvert the
cosily United Kingdom of Tony Blair? If you believed half of what the
hysterical and sensational British Press says, no doubt prompted and
possibly even written by the evil Blair's mad propaganda minister, then our
own benevolent Dear Leader is plotting the ruin of the British economy by
flooding the benign United Kingdom of Unit K with millions of AIDS-infected
bogus asylum seekers. (At least they agree with our Dear Leader on one
point. Both believe that any Zimbabwean who claims to need asylum in their
foggy, cold, unfriendly island must be bogus).

The more extreme
elements suggest that these bogus asylum seekers are in fact a fifth column,
preparing the way for Zimbabwe to colonise the UK - or maybe we should say
're-colonise' if we remember the way that Our Dear Leader's predecessor,
even though he called our beloved country by some hateful foreign name,
often seemed like the tail that wagged the British bulldog.

So
why should our present, much more educated and intelligent, Dear Leader, not
aspire to similar power? (Though we mustn't rule out the possibility that
this story is also prompted by the propaganda ministry)

But that is
not the end of the villainy of the unspeakable Blair lackeys of Canary
Wharf. I know that doesn't sound as good as Fleet Street, but Canary Wharf
is where what used to be called Fleet Street now operates, when it isn't
running over to Downing Street for orders or even the text of tomorrow's
editorial.

Could anyone possibly believe that our benign Dear
Leader single-handedly could be responsible for England's abysmal
performance in this year's European Cup, the failure of truly New Labour
athletes to gain gold medals in the genuinely proletarian and popular events
at the Olympic Games in Athens, and even for the terrible weather Britain
experienced this summer?

It matters not that the months from
May to August were only the succession of wet and cloudy days that used to
be considered normal before global warming; chant the name 'Mugabe' and the
obedient lapdogs of the British Press shout back their slanders and insults
in chorus. Last year they were probably blaming their excessively hot summer
on global warming, which, as we all know, is due to Our Dear Leader's
motorcade and its high emissions of carbon oxides and other greenhouse
gases.

I feared to even open that 'establishment newspaper', which
is a polite hypocritical English way of saying 'official government
mouthpiece', The Times.

I might find a daily diatribe on the
editorial page psycho-analysing our Dear Leader and drawing most
inappropriate attention to every case of incest in our beloved country . .
.

And do I need to mention the fear inspired by the evil Blair's
youth brigades, commonly known as 'skinheads' or 'lager louts'. The chanting
of racist slogans and excessive drinking at their gatherings, usually in
football stadiums, hype them up to go out and commit violence on all and
sundry. Decent citizens are afraid to go out at night in some areas because
of them.

Rumours that they have special 'George Best' training
camps where even worse bestialities are perpetrated on them and they are
then driven out to go out and commit the same on others.

At
this point the air hostess shook me until I woke, just in time for me to
hear the captain announcing over the public address system that we should
fasten our seat belts as we would shortly be landing at Leo Mugabe
International Airport, Harare.

So it was all a dream. Well, it
had to be, didn't it? No country as crazy as that could really survive very
long, could it? - TALKING POINT

Once upon a time, Zanu PF was the opposition
party and Robert Mugabe was the opposition leader.

That was in
1980. There were 80 seats at stake, the other 20 having been set aside, in
accordance with the Lancaster House constitutional agreement of 1979, for
the moribund Rhodesia Front of Ian Smith.

Three major political
parties were contesting to win the black vote and a majority of the 80
seats. Besides Zanu PF, the other serious parties were Bishop Abel
Muzorewa's UANC and Joshua Nkomo's Zapu.

Bishop Muzorewa, who had
been Prime Minister in the short-lived and ill-conceived Zimbabwe-Rhodesia
in 1979, in cahoots with Ian Smith, did not make the playing field even for
the other parties in the race to State House.

The state
machinery was biased against Mugabe and Nkomo and even the British seemed to
prefer Muzorewa as they regarded Mugabe as a Marxist.

A
Gestapo-type of police constabulary, Pfumo Revanhu was used to harass the
electorate and to spread malicious propaganda about Mugabe and
Nkomo.

The state-run Rhodesia Broadcasting Corporation
allocated very little air time to Mugabe and Nkomo.

On the eve
of the historic elections in February 1980, the state machinery bombed the
printing press at Mambo Press in Senga township, Gweru, publishers of the
once popular and unbiased Catholic weekly MOTO newspaper.

The
following morning, forged copies of MOTO with a story that was a scurrilous
attack on Mugabe were distributed free by soldiers nationwide. It was a vain
attempt to lure the people to vote against Mugabe, who was as popular then
as Morgan Tsvangirai is today.

But the people knew what they
wanted. They wanted change and they showed this by their vote. Zanu PF
romped home with 57 seats, Zapu won 20 seats and the UANC salvaged three
seats.

There was rollicking jubilation as people celebrated the
Zanu PF victory.

Today, 24 years later, Zanu PF is in the
driving seat and is using the very same dirty tricks that Ian Smith and
Muzorewa used against it in 1980.

History, they say, often repeats
itself.

Mugabe has become a ruthless, intolerant dictator who is
denying people freedom of expression and

association. He will
do everything in his power to ensure that the opposition MDC has little or
no access to the state-run broadcaster in the run up to next March's
elections.

His police force and army are shamelessly partisan and
they use their political muscle to suppress any form of
dissent.

Zanu PF's political fortunes, it appears, are floundering
and if the political field were even,

Mugabe would be destroyed
root and branch.

The time for real political change has come and it
remains to be seen whether or not the people will be given the opportunity
to express their wish at the polling booth and turn the tables as Mugabe did
in 1980.

It might be an old script with a fresh cast.

The action will depend on whether or not Mugabe will let go in grace as did
Muzorewa and Ian Smith in 1980 or will he use his state machinery to ensure
his iron grip on a nation that is wreathing from economic malaise? -
Editorial

The
mayor of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, has provoked angry reactions from
the national government by publishing statistics indicating the number of
people who have died of malnutrition in his city. The mayor vows he will
continue to publish the figures.City officials say twelve people died of
malnutrition in Bulawayo in July and, as has become his custom, Mayor Japhet
Ndabeni-Ncube went public with the figures. This was not well received by
the national government. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo has threatened
to take unspecified "drastic actions" against the Bulawayo city
council.

The state controlled weekly newspaper, Sunday News, accuses Mr.
Ndabeni-Ncube of spreading false information that contradicts the
government's claim that the 2004 grain harvest is enough to feed the nation
while.

The World Food Program and other donor groups dispute the
government's claim.

The mayor, who belongs to the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change, also disagrees with the government's assessment, and
he denies charges that his council is pursuing a hidden agenda.

"They
should congratulate us very much that we really do our job properly," he
said. "We are doing this, by the way, on behalf of the country of Zimbabwe,
the government of Zimbabwe. The city of Bulawayo is a government arm and we
are doing exactly what is expected of us. If somebody is not happy about our
publication it's just unfortunate."

Food is readily available in urban
areas throughout Zimbabwe. But Mr. Ndabeni-Ncube says many people can not
afford to buy it because of increasing poverty.

"It's basically an
economic issue, in the land of plenty there are pockets of people who really
are hit hard in terms of failing to get food. Hence the malnutrition," said
Mr. Ndabeni-Ncube.

Bulawayo's director of health Dr. Zanele Hwalima says
malnutrition is on the increase, but it's nothing new in Bulawayo or
Zimbabwe. She says besides limited access to food, the AIDS pandemic is
worsening the situation.

Most of those who die of malnutrition are in the
under-five age group.

"It will probably also be related to the weaning
practices; the child has just been breastfed and they are moving to the
adult food so there may not be sufficient food. The foods may not be kept
very clean so the children are getting diarrhea illnesses, so the majority
of them are dying," explained Dr. Hwalima.

A U.N. agency
spokesperson, speaking to VOA on condition of anonymity, says while
malnutrition may be on the increase in Zimbabwe, the figures are not yet a
cause for alarm. The spokesperson said malnutrition is widespread in Africa
and is worse in some countries, pointing out that while in some cases a
shortage of food is a factor, chronic poverty is the major cause.

The
official says the government is, with the support of UNICEF, the United
Nations Children's Fund, recruiting people to monitor nutrition trends
throughout the country. This, she says, will ensure that instead of the
usual disaster interventions, a program can be put in place to deal with the
problem on a permanent basis.

The U.N. official also says that both
types of malnutrition, acute and chronic can be treated, but most people
cannot identify the early signs and therefore seek help too late.

A
World Food Program spokesperson, also speaking on condition of anonymity,
said the agency is providing supplementary feeding to at least 600,000
children nationwide. Seventy-thousand of them are in Harare and
Bulawayo.

Marondera - Governor
and resident minister for Mashonaland East Province, David Karimanzira,
escaped death by a whisker when members of the Zimbabwe National Army, (ZNA)
used live ammunition during a mock battle drill at the Mashonaland East
provincial show. The incident, which has left the small farming community
surrounding the provincial capital gripped with fear, occured on Saturday,
when members of the army, who were part of the entertainers at the
agricultural show fired live ammunition into the crowd, injuring 13 people,
two of them seriously. Witnesses who were part of the governor's entourage,
said Karimanzira could have been the target of the freak incident and that
some of the army personnel were aware of that. One of the women, who is a
senior politician from the province, told Daily News Online that it was the
advice from one of the army personnel which saved the governor from possible
death at the entrance of the arena. The governor, who was in the company of
newly elected Member of Parliament for Seke Constituency, Phineus Chihota
and other senior government officials, was saved from the firing line when
the alert army official quickly ordered him and his entourage to immediately
stop proceeding into the arena as 'something was about to go wrong'. The
governor is said to have obliged and moments later, there was gun fire,
heralding the start of the mock battle drill. A few moments later,
Karimanzira could not believe his eyes when he saw people running out of the
stadium in panic. Some of those who were running towards the governor had
been shot and were covered in blood.

Karimanzira is the Zanu PF national
treasurer and also heads the party's anti-corruption committee unit which
has been investigating a number of party-owned companies involved in shaddy
deals. Party supporters in the province are of the opinion that some
high-powered party officials may be aiming at the governor, with the
anticipation that the best way to silence him would be his death. Meanwhile,
an army spokesman, a Major Masuku said circumstances surrounding the
incident were still unclear but assured the nation that the army would carry
out thorough investigations. Among those who were also shot, were two
members of the Air Force of Zimbabwe who were manning an exhibition stand at
the show. "In this profession, we do everything involving firearms by
ourselves. No one can book for a gun on behalf of someone else and from my
knowledge, only blank ammunition is used," said one of the shot airmen. In
an interview with the government-controlled newspaper, The Herald, the
airman, who was not named said the soldiers had fired randomly. "If they had
used blank ammunition - which produces smoke only - they would not have
injured even someone standing as near as five metres away," he said. Police
have confirmed the incident.

A former judge of South Africa's highest court
has criticized the trial of four directors of Zimbabwe's banned Daily News
newspaper, which ended Monday with their acquittal for lack of evidence. The
former Constitutional Court Judge was asked to observe their trial by the
International Bar Association in London.The International Bar
Association's report says it was "objectionable" that the four directors of
the company that owns The Daily News were even charged.

It says the
circumstances surrounding the charges against the four was also
objectionable.

The Association says the Zimbabwe police behaved
disgracefully during the controversy over the publication license for The
Daily News. Police closed the newspaper on government orders a year ago, and
mostly ignored court orders to allow it to re-open.

The report says
that the accused, who went on trial in July, were more victims than
perpetrators of unlawful conduct.

They were charged with publishing The
Daily News without a license.

The former South African judge who wrote
the report, Johan Kriegler, says new media legislation in Zimbabwe followed
the formation of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in 1999, the
first political party to threaten the 19-year one-party rule of Zanu
PF.

He says the new law was "probably, principally aimed" at the The
Daily News and its Sunday edition, which began publishing five years ago,
and quickly outsold state-controlled newspapers.

The Daily News was
the only non-government daily paper and was critical of President Robert
Mugabe's administration.

The law, the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act, requires that all journalists and publishers be
licensed with the state-appointed Media and Information Commission, or face
up to two years in prison.

Judge Kriegler records that the two newspapers
at first did not apply for registration, instead launching an unsuccessful
legal challenge, claiming that the media law violated freedom of speech,
which is enshrined in the Zimbabwe constitution.

The judge said the
trial of the newspaper executives reminded him of similar events during the
apartheid years in South Africa, when many charges were "conceived in
injustice."

Judge Kriegler writes that although the conduct of the trial
appeared fair, this "semblance of justice," as he called it, was in fact not
"justice itself."

The Daily News, which published its last edition
nearly a year ago, is still waiting for a final decision from the Supreme
Court on its legal status.

NURSES at
Chitungwiza Municipality clinics have gone on strike, citing low salaries
and poor working conditions.

The nurses yesterday gathered at Seke North
Clinic. Some who spoke to The Herald complained that they were working under
poor conditions for very low salaries.

"There is no money here, my
dear, and we cannot work on empty stomachs. To make matters worse, we do not
have equipment to use. Do you see that pillowcase over there? We use it as a
delivery pack."

They also complained that there was no oxygen gas, cotton
wool and sanitary pads in the wards.

Patients could be seen lying on
benches in agony as they waited for treatment which was being provided by
the sister-in-charge.

Mrs Agnes Makwarimba, one of the patients, said she
came to the clinic at around 7am and had not received any medical attention
by late yesterday.

"It is even more painful to be here without any
treatment. Those who can afford to see doctors have left, but as for us who
cannot we just have to sit and wait because we paid our money," she
said.

Chitungwiza town clerk Mr Simbarashe Mudunge said he did not know
that the nurses were on strike but had only heard that they intended to take
industrial action. He said council management would meet with the nurses
today to discuss their grievances.

Harare - A young Harare woman was arrested for allegedly
pretending to be President Robert Mugabe's wife, Grace, and ordering a
hospital to enrol herself and a friend on a nursing course, reports said on
Tuesday.

A Harare magistrate heard that 23-year-old Rosemary
Chakacha telephoned the matron at Harare central hospital on Thursday last
week and introduced herself as the 40-year-old first lady, according to the
state-controlled daily Herald newspaper.

She told the matron to
expect two young women giving her real name and her friends and instructed
her to enrol them on a nursing course.

After the matron took their
details and told them they would be contacted when a vacancy occurred,
Chigwaza left. She again telephoned as Mrs Mugabe and became furious that
the two had not been instantly accepted, and threatened the
matron.

She was caught when hospital authorities telephoned
Mugabe's residence to check if Mrs Mugabe had made the calls.

State prosecutor Ndabazinhle Moyo said that Chakacha's impersonation created
the impression that the first lady uses her status as such to gain favours
for the benefit of others.

Chigwaza was charged with fraud and was
granted bail of about R150. She is to appear again on October 1. -
Sapa-dpa

PLANS are at an advanced stage for a new airport for
Kariba, allowing Air Zimbabwe to resume its popular flights into the
area.

Air Zimbabwe cannot fly its smallest aircraft, the Boeing 737, into
Kariba because the present runway is too short and cannot be
extended.

The Minister of Environment and Tourism, Cde Francis Nhema,
said the national airline had agreed in principle to reintroduce flights to
the resort town.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe is planning
a new airport for Kariba. It has already carried out a feasibility study on
the relocation of the airport to a more suitable site that can accommodate
aircraft the size of a Boeing 737.

At least two sites were identified
at Charara and Masango Bay.

The decision to relocate was being influenced
by the fact that expansion of the existing airport was being hampered by the
existence of electricity pylons from Kariba Dam in the vicinity.

The
lack of a reliable air service to Kariba had seriously hampered tourism. Air
Zimbabwe at times had to schedule two Viscount services a day when the
aircraft was still in use.

The town has been losing millions in
revenue, as tourists preferred to visit other resort towns such as Victoria
Falls, which have a more reliable air service.

Tour operators in the
resort town said most of their tourists preferred to travel by air, which
also provided the easiest and quickest service especially if they wished to
connect to other places.

"It is a pity we have to lose out on our share
of the pie because of lack of airline services but we have some of the best
holiday packages around.

"We have one of the third largest man-made lakes
in the whole world. We also have some of the largest stocks of tiger fish
and game around and then, of course, the activities - fishing canoeing, boat
cruises, game drives," said one operator.

Kariba Airport was last
extended in 1977 to cater for an increase in passenger and freight
traffic.

The expansion entailed the creation of a larger passenger lounge
and a spacious handling area.

Cde Nhema said his ministry had taken a
deliberate decision to market Kariba as a tourist destination after the
successful campaign to market Victoria Falls.

To this end, he said,
all the activities planned by his ministry and its various departments for
the remainder of the year would be held in Kariba.

The ministry last week
held commemorations to mark the International Day for the Preservation of
the Ozone layer in the resort town.

The ozone layer is a belt in the thin
upper atmosphere were oxygen forms a molecule with three atoms, rather than
the usual two. The highly reactive gas, which is not stable in denser areas
of the atmosphere, filters out a great deal of the ultraviolet light
reaching Earth, making the planet habitable.

True to its sensitive and emotive nature, the resolution of the South
African land question has caused discontent in some quarters, despite the
adamant stance of the government that considerable progress has been
made.

The government's optimistic stance stems from the fact that
between 1995 and March 2004, of a total 79,696 land claims, 48,825 have been
settled, involving 662,307 beneficiaries, at a total cost of R809-m. The
Department of Land Affairs has a mandate to meet the directive of settling
all land claims by next year and has indicated that they are on course to
meet the 2005 deadline.

The land reform programme has three
legs: land restitution, land redistribution, and land tenure. Land
restitution entails restoring land to people dispossessed of it because of
racial discrimination. Claimants have to have been dispossessed of their
land after the infamous Land Act of 1913.

Land redistribution is
intended to promote access to land for landless people with the intention
that the land be used for residential and productive purposes. Here the
government has set itself the goal of redistributing 30% of arable land to
Africans by 2015.

The last leg is the land tenure programme, which
is aimed at improving the terms and conditions through which people occupy,
use and have access to land.

But despite the 48,000-odd claims
that have been settled, critics point out that there are flaws in the
process which may explode in future.

Elizabeth Kgwadi, co-ordinator
of land rights at the lobby group, National Land Committee (NLC), does not
mince her words in taking the restitution process apart: "We are very
unhappy about how the process has unfolded because most of the claims were
settled through financial compensation and most activity has been centred
around urban areas," she said, adding that rural claims have been relegated
to the backburner.

Kgwadi adds that settling claims through money
does not change the skewed ownership of land in SA because it means people
who were dispossessed are still without land. 'We foresee problems in future
because people who got money might come back at some point and demand their
land back."

Kraai van Niekerk, the DA's spokesperson on land
affairs, agrees with Kgwadi that financial compensation might present
problems in future. "This is dangerous because people may turn back and want
their land back." Van Niekerk also points out that while most claims were
settled in urban centres, settling rural claims will be the real
challenge.

But Smuts Ngonyama, the ANC's head of presidency, has a
different take on the matter: "People have a choice, we are a democratic
country . if people prefer money rather than land they should be allowed to
exercise that choice," says Ngonyama. He added that the DA and the NLC were
setting false alarms that people might turn back in future and demand their
lands.

Ngonyama also defended the thorny issue of the expropriation
of land: "If there is a need to expropriate the land, it will happen. It
happens all over the world." He cited the example of the Gautrain project,
for which some land will have to be expropriated, but says "the process will
be accompanied by adequate compensation".

Another thing that is
disconcerting, says Kgwadi, is the fact that in most cases claimants were
"given peanuts" while white farmers were handsomely rewarded for the farms
that they have given up. She says in some cases people were given as little
as R1,000 to R4,000 as compensation for their lost land.

Van
Niekerk had some harsh words for the land reform project. He said all
projects where the government was involved were in disarray because the
state has failed to provide sufficient funds to ensure the project's
success. He added that the land reform programme would fail because new farm
owners are hampered by lack of skills, finance and mentoring.

This point is also made by Carolyn Jenkins of the Centre for the Study of
African Economies at Oxford University. In her paper, Post-independence
economic policy in Zimbabwe - lessons for South Africa, she contends that
most of President Robert Mugabe's high-profile land reform programmes failed
to help the poor because the government did not provide welfare services,
financial grants or jobs when it handed over the land.

"If
you've got nothing to start with, and you are given a plot of land, you have
no means of farming it. You have no capital to buy a plough or seeds or
fertiliser and you may not even have much water," explains
Jenkins.

The need for land reform in SA is underscored by the
fact that blacks are still confined to 20% of the country as opposed to the
80% occupied by whites - a point acknowledged by Van Niekerk.

The Department of Land Affairs estimates that over 3,5-m people and their
descendants were victims of racially-based land dispossession and forced
removal during the apartheid era.

PRESIDENT Mugabe arrived in New
York on Sunday to attend the 59th United Nations General Assembly which
opened this week.

Cde Mugabe - who is being accompanied by the First Lady
Cde Grace Mugabe, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Cde Stan Mudenge and other
senior Government officials - was met at John F Kennedy International
Airport by Zimbabwe's Ambassador to the UN, Cde Boniface Chidyausiku, and
other senior Government officials.

The President is tomorrow expected
to address the UN General Assembly.

Yesterday, he was expected to attend
a session addressed by Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa on globalisation,
hunger and poverty alleviation.

Mr Mkapa is also co-chair of the World
Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation.

Cde Mugabe was
also expected to listen to an address by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva on poverty alleviation yesterday.

The President was late
yesterday expected to hold separate talks with Mozambican President Joaquim
Chissano, South African President Thabo Mbeki and Namibian President Sam
Nujoma centering on bilateral issues. There was a possibility that he might
also hold talks with the President of Gabon, Mr Omar Bongo.

The
current president of the UN General Assembly, Mr Jean Ping, is from
Gabon.

About 89 leaders from around the world are expected to address
the assembly.

Issues to be covered include unilateralism in world
affairs, especially in the wake of last week's admission by UN
Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan that the invasion of Iraq by the United
States and Britain was illegal.

The reform and democratisation of the UN
is also likely to be discussed.

There have been calls - spearheaded by
President Mugabe and other leaders from the developing world - for the
expansion of the UN Security Council to also include developing countries as
permanent members.

Currently, the US, Britain, Russia, China and France
are the five permanent members of the Security Council with veto powers
individually.

President Mugabe has over the years taken the opportunity
at the UN General Assembly to explain Zimbabwe's land reform programme and
criticise the emergence of unipolarism in world affairs in which powerful
nations, such as Britain and the US, seek to dominate the world and dictate
to other countries how they should govern themselves.

RECENT
demonstrations by the pro-democracy interest group, the National
Constitutional Assembly in Zimbabwe, highlight the plight of interest groups
and NGOs should government enact the draft Non-Governmental Organisations
Bill. The demonstrations are also a sign that civil society groups are not
submissively accepting legislation that might lead to their closure but are
opposing it with vigour.

The National Constitutional Assembly
delivered a letter to SA's high commission, calling on the country to
intervene diplomatically in Zimbabwe's political crisis. At the recent
Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit, interest groups
lobbied for support against the bill. They called on SADC member states and
civil society in the region to support their drive towards an environment
that is more conducive to civil society in Zimbabwe.

According to the
Zimbabwean National Association of Non-governmental Organisations (Nango),
representing more than 1000 groups, it has received support from other
umbrella NGO groups in Botswana, Malawi, SA and Zambia.

The association
believes that this bill, which is designed to monitor the activities of NGOs
in Zimbabwe closely, will "kill" civil society. The bill will introduce
punitive measures directed at private charities, religious groups, NGOs and
aid organisations.

Zimbabwe's government argues that the proposed law is
meant to protect the public interest by ensuring NGOs are governed and
administered properly and use donor and public funds for the objectives for
which they were established.

Civil society organisations have a
different take: Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights sees the bill as a
"gimmick that is meant to administratively create criminals out of NGOs so
as to provide excuses for intrusion, clamp down and closures of
NGOs".

Nango is protesting against the bill, saying that it fears for the
independence of its members if aspects of their work are
criminalised.

Should the bill be enacted, a 15-member NGO council will
regulate nongovernmental organisations. Ten of these members will be
representatives of government ministries, while five will be representatives
from civil society groups.

The minister of public service, labour and
social welfare will identify these five NGO members, thus undermining the
independence of interest groups to monitor and criticise government policies
and actions. The bill also envisages the imposition of restrictions on
foreign funding for human rights and governance work. NGOs believe that this
will cut the bulk of their funding in a climate where there are no
alternatives and limited access to local funding.

At a hearing of the
parliamentary portfolio committee on public service, labour and social
welfare earlier this month, NGOs made a submission that the bill should not
be passed in its current form and needed considerable amendment. The
committee will respond to the submissions after a report has been tabled
before and debated by parliament.

Nango's Jacob Mavu says the NGOs will
continue discussions with other regional umbrella organisations and
stakeholders in Zimbabwe to facilitate constructive engagement. The
association hopes for talks with the public service, labour and social
welfare ministry in an attempt to have the bill amended.

Should the
bill be passed by parliament, it will most certainly curtail further the
operations of civil society environment, deepening a climate where
corruption is rife, and voice and accountability, transparency and the rule
of law are further weakened.

Yet it will most probably become law, given
Zanu (PF)'s parliamentary majority. The bill will decrease the political
space for civil society and entrench a corporatist state, where many NGOs
and interest groups will align themselves with government and toe the party
line to ensure their survival.

This will not mean the end of civil
society in Zimbabwe, but will most certainly stifle opposition and criticism
of the ruling party. Civil society groups might also broaden their tactics,
including closer co-operation with the opposition MDC, possible litigation
and more "illegal" demonstrations.

Meissner is a researcher at the South
African Institute of International Affairs.

THE main
opposition party in Zimbabwe, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
denied yesterday that it had threatened a campaign of "disorder and mayhem"
when two of the party's senior officials met President Thabo Mbeki at the
weekend.

In a statement released yesterday the party said that there was
"no truth whatsoever in the allegation" published by This Day newspaper
yesterday that it was planning a campaign to render the country
ungovernable. It said that it continued its commitment "to pursuing a
peaceful, constitutional and legal route to achieving our political
objectives".

The MDC's vice-president, Gibson Sibanda, and its
secretary-general met President Mbeki at the weekend. MDC officials are
currently explaining to members of the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) the reasons for the party's decision not to contest
elections , including a parliamentary poll scheduled for next
March.

The party said it "suspended" participation in all elections, and
would contest them only if President Robert Mugabe ensured a level playing
field for their participation and halted intimidation.

The party said
it was also lobbying in the region to exert pressure on Harare to adhere to
the principles and guidelines on democratic elections passed at the SADC
summit in Mauritius last month.

Meanwhile in Harare, the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) is due to close its offices in Zimbabwe at the end of
next month.

"The dates for the closure (of the office) will be the end of
October 2004," said Rodney Matemachani, the officer in charge of the Harare
office of the IMF. "It (the office) can't be open without a resident
representative." The IMF's last representative to Harare left a year ago at
the end of his term, and no replacement has been appointed.

The
closure of the office comes with relations strained between the southern
African country and the IMF over Zimbabwe's failure to pay back more than
200m in debt.

The IMF board of directors issued a statement last week
blaming Zimbabwe's economic woes on "weak governance, corruption and the
lack of respect for the rule of law".

The government has denied
responsibility for the economic problems, blaming them on sanctions imposed
by the US, Britain and the European Union.